Snakes in the well

Dear more knowledgable ones,
We rented a rural property with a couple wells. The wells have not been used for years. The more shallow one with the hand pump is the one we are trying to resurrect. We know zip about it. We have pumped about 4 feet of water out to see if it recovers and it did somewhat. It took eight hours for a 4'4" diameter well to recover 15 inches. Is this an acceptable rate of recovery?

There are many, many snakes hanging out in the well. Now we don't know the next best step to take. I am quite freaked out at this snake situation. I know we need to dump bleach down there but then where do snakes usually go, in basements? Waa Waa

Answers

What kinda snakes? We had some living in our crawl space when we
moved here... got cats right away... plus killed a few. (Choose yer
weapon... shotgun or broom!) Now that we have cats (sturdy little
buggers too... been bit by a snake more than once, but lived to tell
about it, so to speak) they don't come around anymore. (not much,
anyway)

We also have dogs that run inside our fenced property. We keep the
inner grass mowed down, cause snakes like TALL brush. But they do
like ponds... (or wells!) and we just steer clear of the nearest pond
until late fall when the snakes go nighty-night around here. Sort of
wish we had a pond, but our neighbors do, and they get the snakes
too.. so maybe it worked out better this way.

Hope you get some better help...

georgia peach
(how about callin' an exterminator? Ours'll set traps for them.)

The surface area of your well, 4'4" wide,
is the radius squared times pi :
2.167' x 2.167' x 3.14159 = 14.747 sq feet
So each 12" of depth is 14.747 cubic feet.
A cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons (7.48)
So each 12" of depth is 14.767 x 7.48 = 110.46 gallons,
or 110.46/12" = 9.2 gallons per inch.
You had 15 inches refill in 8 hours,
so 15 x 9.2 = 138 gallons/ 8 hrs,
or 17 gallons per hour.
That's almost 1.5 gallons per 5 minutes.
Is this enough? that's a subjective question,
but you do have water!
PS: I hear snakes taste like chicken..... :-)

Be careful if they're Copperheads!!!MAS Dangerous!!! Most of the
water-borne/aquatic snakes are A)Hostile and B)Dangerous. Be
EX-tremely careful when dealing with them buggers. Best bet, get a
pro to handle it!

After killing what we thought was a cottonmouth, we educated ourselves
and found that we had killed a harmless water snake. I don't see any
point in killing non-poisonous snakes, especially if you're interested
in rodent control. Getting an expert to help you is a good idea. I
would also advise everyone to get the Audobon (sp?) guide to reptiles
if you have questions. FYI, for cottonmouths, you can see their eyes
when looking down on them from above. With water snakes, you can't.
Also, strange as it sounds, most non-poisonous snakes are usually much
more aggressive than the poisonous ones.

Not trying to discourage you, but your dug well is inherently unsafe.
Bleach will not keep it from being recontaminated from other snakes,
bugs, or runoff. If you can drive a point for a well, it would cost
only a few hundred for everything.

If not, you will almost have to assume the water is unsafe for
drinking and disinfect it after pumping it from the well. People do
still drink water from dug wells without any problems, but you're
taking a chance. In my state (WI) dug wells are illegal and are
ordered filled whenever found.

You may think snakes are bad, but when you find a dead rat or skunk
in one then you'll realize how vulnerable these type wells are.